When I dig back through my memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling and that’s one of warmth, comfort and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost, or will find, I’ve still got a hometown. This, nobody’s gonna take away from me.

Everyone has to have a hometown, Binghamton’s mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive makeup of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat, or kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that’s familiar because that’s where you grew up.

– Rod Serling

According to a Syracuse Post Standard story on April 15, 2015, Serling was born Dec. 25, 1924, in Syracuse and moved to the Southern Tier at age 2. After attending what is now Binghamton High School, he went on to create and host The Twilight Zone. He was posthumously inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and his Emmy-winning series was later named the No. 3 best-written TV show of all time by the Writers Guild of America, after Seinfeld (No. 2) and The Sopranos (No. 1).

What many people don’t know or forget about Serling is that he was in the United States Army before he became an award winning television writer. In November 1944, the 11th Airborne Division saw combat for the first time, landing in the Philippines and used as light infantry during the Battle of Leyte. Later on, he was transferred to the 511th’s demolition platoon, nicknamed “The Death Squad” for its high casualty rate. According to Sergeant Frank Lewis, leader of the demolitions squad, “He screwed up somewhere along the line. Apparently he got on someone’s nerves.” Lewis also assessed that Serling was not equipped to be a field soldier: “he didn’t have the wits or aggressiveness required for combat.” At one juncture, Lewis, Serling, and others were engaged in a firefight, caught in a foxhole. As darkness approached, Lewis saw that Serling had not reloaded any of his extra magazines. Serling sometimes went exploring on his own, against orders, and got lost.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Serling)

From Leyte Gulf, armada in the Pacific by Donald Macintyre, Ballantine’s Illustrated History of World War II, 1970 [David Kramer’s collection}

Endlessly curious about people and other worlds, the idea of Serling getting lost exploring a foreign culture when he should be focused on killing the enemy, is an impression that Twilight Zone fans can easily relate to. His ineptitude as a soldier aside, the experience in Leyte shaped his writing and political views. In fact, Serling later set several of his scripts in the Philippines and used the specter of death as a motif in much of his writing.

As an admirer of the series, I wanted to add a stopover in Binghamton to a recent field trip to see Mark Twain’s grave in Elmira and the John Burroughs Memorial Site in Roxbury. Although I went looking for some of the monuments associated with Serling’s childhood e.g., Boscov’s Department Store, the Binghamton Bus Terminal, the Forum Theater, and the bandstand and antique carousel in Recreation Park, which set the scene for one of the Twilight Zone’s most famous episodes called “Walking Distance,” as it turned out, my father and I pulled into the city a tad too late to go searching for these landmarks. With only enough time to grab a beer and some fries at the Galaxy Brewing Company and Colonial Bar, I had to make due with what I could find downtown. I was disappointed not to locate some of Serling’s old haunts, but I am sure that some of the monuments in this photo montage were familiar to Serling growing up.

[Editor’s Note. In June 1975, when Serling was only 50, he was admitted to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester and had open-heart surgery on June 26th. For three tense days, Rochestarians followed his plight. At first, the surgery seemed successful, but apparently Serling suffered a heart attack and died on June 28th, 1975.]

The city has done a wonderful job of preserving these vintage signs and storefronts. It is not hard to picture a young Serling purchasing a birthday gift at Phil’s.

The Court Street Historic District includes the historic core of downtown Binghamton, which evolved on either side of Court Street immediately east of the Chenango River. A concentration of 104 buildings included in the district, 89 of which represent contributing structures built between c.1840 and 1939.

From the days of the railroad, Binghamton was a transportation crossroads and a manufacturing center, and has been known at different times for the production of cigars, shoes, and computers.

Binghamton incorporated as a city in 1867 and, due to the presence of several stately homes, was nicknamed the Parlor City

Lions in front of the Grand Royale Hotel. The landmark building, which sits between Collier and State streets, served as Binghamton City Hall for 75 years before city offices were moved to the government center on Hawley Street in 1972.

No. 99 Collier Street, built in 1899 for Binghamton Savings Bank, features a three-bay, five-story facade of red and cream brick with cut-stone detailing. It is flanked to the north by the seven-story People’s Trust building of 1915, which features a cut-stone facade with classical pilasters, entablatures and tripartite windows separated by metal spandrels with cartouche details.

The first known people of European descent to come to the area were the troops of the Sullivan Expedition in 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, who destroyed local villages of the Onondaga and Onida tribes.

Talker of the Town is a continuation of conversations begun in three Democratic Chronicle blogs: Make City Schools Better, Unite Rochester and the Editorial Board.
Since February 2013, urban education has been the primary focus. Now, the flowering of topics is limited only by our imaginations.

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